Tastecicles writes: As US President Barack Obama put it Tuesday at Georgetown University, to the rapturous applause of students and faculty staff, the industrial arm of the US economy needs to stop burying its head in the sand over climate change. But, was his speech intended to placate the AGW crowd such as Gore, with the quip that "We don't have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society"? Or did he have something else in mind, like promoting the gas boom made possible by the development of hydraulic fracturing as a viable means to extract shale gas (which, surprise surprise, emits as much CO2 per kilogram burned as low-grade brown anthracite)? Just what is the "science" on which he intends to rely when he signs in his proposed measures?

As a skeptic (one who requires empirical proof, not innuendo and not repeated claims) into AGW but not into climate change, I don't consider myself a Flat Earther (one who refuses to change his mind even in the face of empirical evidence). Convince me.

Tastecicles writes: If only this were an April Fool's joke; it's not. The submitter has been witness to this very case and is in contact with Roger Hayes.

In a frightening example of how the state is tightening its grip around the free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also deleting search terms by government mandate.

The latest example is You Tube’s compliance with a request from the British government to censor footage of the British Constitution Group Lawful Rebellion protest, during which they attempted to civilly arrest Judge Michael Peake at Birkenhead county court.

Peake was ruling on a case involving Roger Hayes, former member of UKIP, who has refused to pay council tax, both as a protest against the government’s treasonous activities in sacrificing Britain to globalist interests and as a result of Hayes clearly proving that council tax is illegal.

Hayes has embarked on an effort to legally prove that the enforced collection of council tax by government is unlawful because no contract has been agreed between the individual and the state. His argument is based on the sound legal principle that just like the council, Hayes can represent himself as a third party in court and that “Roger Hayes” is a corporation and must be treated as one in the eyes of the law.

Tastecicles writes: Final checks are under way before the launch of a daring attempt to investigate an ancient lake beneath the ice sheet of West Antarctica.

Lake Ellsworth lies below ice that is at least two miles (3.2km) thick.

Its pitch-black waters have remained isolated and unseen for up to half a million years.

This will be the first attempt to extract uncontaminated samples of water and sediment from a body of water so far below the surface. Earlier this year, a Russian expedition drilled and breached Lake Vostok, on the other side of the continent. That venture yielded clues as to the prevailing conditions beneath the permafrost.

The investigation is part of a search to understand the limits of where life is possible and, despite the high pressures and lack of sunlight, it is likely that microbes will be detected.

Tastecicles writes: Patrick Moore was the monocled surveyor of the sky who awakened in millions of people an interest in galactic goings on.

His love of astronomy began at the age of six and that childhood curiosity developed into a lifelong passion.

It was a passion he shared through his programme, The Sky at Night, which he presented for more than 50 years, only ever missing one episode due to illness.

Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore was born at Pinner, Middlesex on 4 Mar 1923.

Heart problems meant he spent much of his childhood being educated at home and he became an avid reader.

His mother gave him a copy of GF Chambers' book, The Story of the Solar System, and this sparked his lifelong passion for astronomy.

He was soon publishing papers about the moon's surface, based on observations made with his first three-inch telescope. His 1908 vintage typewriter enabled him to publish more than a thousand books on subjects ranging from astronomy, his first love, to cricket, golf, and music.

Tastecicles writes: Sir James Chadwick, 1935 Nobel Physics Prize winner and discoverer of the neutron, would be celebrating his 121st birthday today, 20th October. Born in 1891, his discovery changed the world of physics in ways we're still discovering.

Tastecicles writes: Rare metal mining and components concern AVX Corporation is the latest victim of the group Anonymous, who have just announced a successful hack of the company's client database. The Anonymous hackers have published the database on several file dumps, stating that AVX "has been involved in the illegal mining and export of coltan from the war torn Democratic Republic of the Congo" Coltan is a dark ore consisting of niobium and tantalum and a vital component of most electronic devices on Western markets. Since AVX Corp. has previously given its assurances that it does not source conflict minerals for its component manufacture, what does this mean for it and its parent company Kyocera Electronics Corporation (71% ownership), should the assertions of Anonymous prove accurate?

Tastecicles writes: Hubblesite reports that: a team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is reporting the discovery of another moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto.The moon is estimated to be irregular in shape and 6 to 15 miles across. It is in a 58,000-mile-diameter circular orbit around Pluto that is assumed to be co-planar with the other satellites in the system."The moons form a series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls," said team lead Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.The discovery increases the number of known moons orbiting Pluto to five.The Pluto team is intrigued that such a small planet can have such a complex collection of satellites. The new discovery provides additional clues for unraveling how the Pluto system formed and evolved. The favored theory is that all the moons are relics of a collision between Pluto and another large Kuiper belt object billions of years ago.Provisionally designated S/2012 (134340) 1, the latest moon was detected in nine separate sets of images taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 on June 26, 27, and 29, 2012 and July 7 and 9, 2012.

Tastecicles writes: Yesterday at 12:56 CET, the European Parliament decided whether ACTA would be ultimately rejected or whether it would drag on into uncertainty. In a 478 to 39 vote, the Parliament decided to reject ACTA once and for all. This means that the deceptive treaty is now dead globally.

Six months ago, the situation looked very dark. It was all but certain that ACTA would pass unnoticed in silence. The forces fighting for citizens’ rights tried to have it referred to the European Court of Justice in order to test its legality and to buy some time. But then, something happened.

A monster by the name of SOPA appeared in the United States. Thousands of websites went dark on January 18 and millions of voices cried out, leaving Congress shell-shocked over the fact that citizens can get that level of pissed off at corporate special interests. SOPA was killed.

The European Commissioner responsible for the treaty, Karel de Gucht, has said that he will ignore any rejections and re-table it before the European Parliament until it passes. That’s not going to happen.

Tastecicles writes: The BBC reports that Google is to implement its new consolidated privacy policy today, bringing together a single policy that covers some sixty different services including Gmail and Youtube. The French aren't happy with this move, claiming that it falls afoul of EU data protection legislation, but Google claims that its new policy helps it to tailor search results to individual user accounts. For those not wanting the tailored ads, Google suggests that users get smarter — performing Google searches without signing in, for example, or (my suggestion) using Google in "incognito" mode and/or turning cookies off.

Tastecicles writes: After several years of procrastination, Russian scientists have drilled through 2.2 miles of permafrost and breached the pristine waters of Lake Vostok in Antarctica. While excitement mounts over the unique life forms that may live in the lake, worry about contamination from drill lubricants and modern bacteria has always been a sticking point. Either way, it's a bit late for worrying about that now; what the Russians have is a major scientific coup. How do they plan on capitalising on this?